Mac OS

Here’s a comprehensive list of budgeting software for Mac, I originally created this list for a family member who is a recent switcher and was looking for some personal budgeting software for their new Mac, and I figured it was useful enough to share with everyone else. Quicken – $69.99 – almost everyone has heard … Read More

A much anticipated feature of Mac OS X Snow Leopard for corporate users is Microsoft Exchange support being built-in, and a coworker just asked me how to setup Microsoft Exchange to work on their new iMac sporting 10.6. I was about to write up a how-to guide when I came across a nice and easy … Read More

iPhoney is a nice iPhone Simulator that works to replicate the web browsing experience of iPhone users. This is very helpful to web developers that need to test if a web site or application works on the iPhone, and also how the user experiences the site. It’s not a traditional iPhone Simulator in the sense … Read More

There are several different ways to rip dvd’s on your Mac, we’ll cover ripping DVD’s with HandBrake and with VLC here. HandBrake is probably the best choice for ripping a DVD in Mac OS, and it makes DVD rips very easy to create in a variety of file formats. Basically the steps are this easy: … Read More

You can see a visual preview of a folders contents by enabling a hidden Quick Look feature. This is a rather nice eye candy improvement but I’m not sure that it’s use goes much further beyond that, see the above screenshot and try it out yourself to judge. To enable the Quick Look X-Ray folders, … Read More

Looking for a PS2 Emulator for Mac OS X? Look no further then PCSX2, a full blown PS2 emulator for Mac OS X that works surprisingly well. I say surprising because it seems development work is a little infrequent and there are some features left to be desired, but it certainly works and the frame … Read More

OK this is a little random, but I came across one of those cute animals sites today that featured of all things… Dogs with Macs! If you don’t like dogs, well, just ignore this post, but dogs love Macs too!

Quick Look is one of the many Mac OS X features that make my OS choice cemented, I use it so often that I simply can’t live without it, and here’s a tip that I’ve been using a lot lately. If you want to create an instant slideshow of images, simply select multiple images in … Read More

Stacks are what list items and folders turn into when pulled into the Dock of OS X. There are several views for Stacks, like a grid, or a fan, or a list in modern OS X versions. But with a little secret defaults string, a list view can be enabled in prior releases of OS … Read More

The Google Chrome for Mac is still very much in Beta, but the latest Dev Channel build is actually pretty decent for web browsing, while other features are still lacking, but overall it’s a great start and a cool new web browser. One of the biggest advantages to Google Chrome is that each Browser Window … Read More

There are two ways to enable the root super user account in Snow Leopard, the first is probably the quickest. Launch the Terminal and type the following command: sudo passwd root You’ll be asked for the admin password, then you’ll have to set a password for the root account. When you’re finished, the root account … Read More

If you want to quickly change your sound input device on a Mac, by far the fastest and simplest way to do so is to Option-Click the Sound menu icon at the top of your screen. Option-clicking the sound icon menu bar item enables an alternate pull-down menu including a list of clearly labeled and … Read More

In a move that has surprised many, Apple has decided to open source their multiprocessor task management technology known as Grand Central Dispatch. This comes as a surprise because the technology has barely gotten into the hands of customers through 10.6 Snow Leopard, and it’s widely considered to be a competitive advantage. So why would … Read More

Want to almost instantaneously put a Mac to sleep from your external keyboard? It’s much easier than you’d think, and you don’t need to pull down the  Apple menu to accomplish this task. Instead, to quickly sleep your Mac just hold down Command + Option + Eject for about two seconds, and the computer … Read More

Ever wondered what shell you are using at the command line? It’s not unusual to want or need to know which shell is running, and though you may hear this question many times, the answer could be different for every user, thus the easiest thing to do is to issue a terminal command which determines … Read More

Do you need to access and mount an SMB share from the command line on a Mac? You may be used to connecting to Windows PC from the Mac networking features to mount a Windows share on Mac, but you can also connect to Samba shares from the Terminal too. This article will show several … Read More

Want to hide all desktop icons on a Mac? Desktop icon clutter can really impact workflow by overwhelming you with files and just too much stuff to look at. Inevitably, it can be hard to avoid since a lot of apps download things to the Desktop by default, we save things there, screenshots go there, … Read More

I have a million different genres in iTunes and not nearly enough album art, which is fine and dandy until you put iTunes 9 into genre ‘grid’ view and then suddenly you have a bunch of boring looking music note icons. Apparently how iTunes sets genre art is by looking for album art set in … Read More